NASA engineer questioned Columbia's ability to land after safety assurances

Florida Today ^

[Dbdaily]

CAPE CANAVERAL -- A NASA engineer advised mission controllers two days before shuttle Columbia's landing to be ready to make tough choices in the final minutes just in case heat shield tiles on the landing gear door were damaged during launch.

[TLBSHOW]

ping

[Sloth]

In this case, Cain said he did not know Daugherty's specific concerns and, asked if he would like to have known, he said, "No."

See no evil, hear no evil.

[Ramius]

Yeesh... of course. I *would hope* that engineers do a lot of what-if-ing. That's what they do.

Where's the memo about the fear of "sprites" that could take down a shuttle?

Where's the memo that they could all be abducted by aliens from Planet P?

Somewhere, there's a memo on anything. Memos are funny that way.

[Ramius]

See no evil, hear no evil.

I dunno, it seems to me like lots of people saw and heard plenty of evil.

[fooman]

Oh my

[Carry_Okie]

[cinFLA]

Move on. Nothing here. We all know that the shuttle was hit by lightning. An act of god.

[Carry_Okie]

Sorry, that should have been:

[eno_]

There is a difference here: This memo predicts what actually happened, at least to the extent it is known. The wheel-well instrumentation showed it was heating up, and then there was a catastrophe.

This, at the very least, shows a stronger connection between the debris strike on launch and the final result.

[X-FID]

Foamhead alert!

[Ramius]

This memo predicts what actually happened, at least to the extent it is known.

Yes, you're right. We know exactly what happened. And... and... NASA must be covering everything up. Of course they are. That's why this memo never existed. That's why we don't know anything about sensors in wheel wells. That's why we don't know anything about heating.

Yes, it's all a big friggin' coverup.

[Ramius]

So what do you think that image is showing? I think it is interesting. Could mean a few different things.

[Ramius]

shows a stronger connection between the debris strike on launch and the final result

It does? How so?

[Charlotte Corday]

"The resulting loads .... would almost certainly blow the door off the hinges or at least send it out into the slip stream - catastrophic. Even if you could survive the heating, would the gear now deploy?"

If this quote is authentic, it does not sound like it could possibly come from someone who understands the shuttle's aerodynamics.

If a wheel well opens up during the maximum stress/heat period, the only option for NASA is how soon to start picking up the debris. Period.

A wheels up landing is totally in the realm of fantasy at that point.

[Carry_Okie]

I think the appearance of coping at the nose and along the fuselage might be diffraction through and around the gas plume from a yaw thruster resisting the effect of the obvious additional drag from the wing area.

There are many scenarios for the way the root and leading edge are distorted, but I won't go there right now.

[Ramius]

Agreed... the angles of the approach, and relative angle of the orbiter to the camera make that photo difficult to interpret. It certainly looks like something is different with the left wing than the right, and the plume aft of the left wing is perhaps the most meaningful part, but having never seen a photo of the plasma cloud around any other shuttle landing, it's hard to say what this means.

I'm simply not buying the "foam" argument yet. Sure, it's among the possibilities, but it just doesn't seem likely at this point. It sounds like the lazy answer, not the right answer.

[Jael]

Keep bumping me on this stuff. Please. :-)

[Jael]

Info bump

[TLBSHOW]

NASA engineer warned about 'catastrophic' risk to shuttle


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030213/ap_wo_en_ge/na_gen_us_shuttle_investigation_86